Virgil
Virgil is an inhabitant of the Intruder, and appears in the episodes The Von Neumann-machine,'' The Genesis-equation'' and The Armageddon-traveller. He is named after Virgil from Dante's La Divina Commedia, but like many people in the Intruder, he's not exactly the same character due to bugs in the computer of the First Cocoon. Meeting Virgil Virgil met Storm, Ember, Nomad and Rak*El in the cocoon that resembled Hell. As Storm had noticed this Hell looks exactly like the Hell from Dante's La Divina Commedia he reckoned the man who called out to them could only be Virgil. However, this Virgil was not a sinner, nor was he born in this cocoon. He was a traveller in search of extinguished cocoons. Virgil became a guide for the group. He had made lifelong friends in Hell by showing kindness, and with the help of Geryon and Antaeus they reached the Frozen Sea of Traitors, where Virgil knew a door leading to another cocoon. Travelling the cocoons While Virgil acted as a guide, he mostly turned out to be rather pessimistic, abandoning the people who were in danger. As they crossed a cocoon in which the city was turned upside down, Ember was abducted by a pterodactyl-like creature controlled by a hungry mummy. Virgil told Storm to forget about her and save himself, but Storm chased after the mummy and Ember anyway with a Sopwith Camel, and managed to save Ember. In the next cocoon, which was almost entirely filled with water, Virgil showed similar behaviour when Storm was caught by a giant hungry squid. Instead of saving Storm, he signalled to Ember that Storm was 'dead' and he and Nomad brought Ember to safety, against her will. Luckily, Storm was saved by Rak*El. Neu-London The next cocoon was Neu-London. Here the group was nearly arrested due to Ember's nakedness, but were 'saved' by the Artful Dredger who took them to his master Fuggin. While Dredger had some plans for Storm, Ember and Nomad, Virgil was somehow left out. But apart of giving Ember "clothes", none of those plans were carried out, as soon Marduk and his fallen angels invaded the city. Fuggin sent the group with Dredger to Sherlock Holmes, who concluded that Storm had to travel to the First Cocoon to find out a way to save everyone's lives. Virgil was shocked when he understood that Storm had to travel through the Fourth Dimension, as no one had ever returned. As Holmes led the group to a 'trash dump' (the entrance to the Fourth Dimension), they were discovered by Marduk's guards. While Storm, followed by Ember, continued on to the trash dump, Virgil and Nomad caused a diversion. The two succesfully gave Storm and Ember the time they needed to escape, but were captured by Marduk's troops themselves. Searching for Storm Nomad and Virgil were sentenced to death, but Rak*El helped them escape from their imprisonment. But Marduk deliberately let them escape as he knew they would go searching for Storm and had a tracker attached to Nomad's belt. Through many cocoons, Virgil took them to a place where they might find help. He went to his sister, Queen Beeatrice, who ruled over her people who lived like bees in a hive. From Virgil's story, Beeatrice understood Storm had taken the most direct route to the First Cocoon. There is yet another route, but it's a more dangerous one. Indeed, when Virgil, Nomad and Rak*El take the maintenance route (after being attacked by Marduk), they end up at a garbage dump inhabited by cannibals. And they will be their next menu! But meanwhile Storm had made contact with Pandarve and in the form of little Alice she's gathering Storm's friends. She also sets Marduk straight and forces him to save Virgil, Nomad, Rak*El and Visfil from the cannibals. Soon Virgil discovers the energytransporter that will take them all to the First Cocoon, where they are reunited with Storm and Ember. But things aren't going according to plan. Storm had asked Pandarve to send his electronical twin inside the Danderzei-Mainframe computer to the computer of the First Cocoon to clean up the bugs in the system, but instead it wants to take revenge for being abandoned and make the collision between Pandarve and the Intruder happen. Everyone looks shocked as the main program in the shape of John Von Neumann is 'deleted', making the collision inevitable. But at that moment Alice had found Storm's parents were also uploaded in the First Cocoon's computer. To save his parents, Storm's electronical twin calls out to the real Storm to re-program the Genesis-equation into the computer. This makes the Intruder break apart into smaller cocoons. The first cocoon falls upon Pandarve, where Virgil can see the sky for the first time in his life. Trivia According to the synopsis for The Von Neumann-machine, Martin Lodewijk had the idea to have Robin Hood as a guide instead of Virgil.